GOLF: Davies slumps out of contention

GOLF

Davies slumps out of contention

The Spaniard Raquel Carriedo grabbed the halfway lead as Laura Davies crashed to a second-round 76 in her own tournament at Brocket Hall, in Hertfordshire, yesterday. Davies, three strokes off the lead after an opening 69, saw her chance of a fourth win of the season all but disappear. She is nine shots behind Carriedo, who added a 70 to her opening 66 to retain her overnight lead in the Cantor Fitzgerald Invitational. "It's really disappointing because I came here full of hope and now I've got virtually no chance," said Davies. "I'll need some help from other people if I'm going to win." Carriedo, with 13 birdies in her first two rounds, has never won in five years on the tour. But she holed a succession of good putts to retain a one-shot lead over Sweden's Sofia Gronberg-Whitmore, on eight-under par, 136.